RS PKU Muhammadiyah, K.H. Sudja’s Ridiculed Brilliant Notion

Muhammadiyah members have been familiar with Rumah Sakit Kesejahteraan Umat (RS PKU – Muhammadiyah Hospital). It was initially called Penolong Kesengsaraan Oemoem (PKO) which provided health services for the poor. One of the hospital founders was K.H. Sudja’ who was one of the four early Muhammadiyah figures and a descent of K.H. Hasyim.
The four figures were H. Zaini, Ki Bagus Hadikusumo, K.H. Fakhruddin, and K.H. Sudja’. They together with K.H. Ahmad Dahlan strove to develop Muhammadiyah at the beginning of its establishment.
At the seminar on Muhammadiyah and Nationality conducted by Doctoral Program of Islamic Politics of Universitas Muhammadiah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Thursday (4/4), a lectuer of Faculty of Law of UMY, who is also an offspring of K.H. Sudja’,  stated, “There are only few documents written by K.H. Sudja’ telling the establishment of the hospital.”
“It was commenced in a meeting conducted by K.H. Ahmad Dahlan. He asked whether there was a building to construct. K.H. Sudja’ proposed to build a hospital, yet audiences at the meeting laughed at his proposal,” told Mukti at the seminar organized at Building of Graduate School of UMY, floor 4.
“The meeting bore three essential notions, namely hospital, Rumah Miskin, and an orphanage. K.H. Sudja’ was not an orator, but a drafter. He had great dreams. His dream to establish the hospital was from K.H. Ahmad Dahlan’s teaching and theology of Al-Maun,” added Mukti.
Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Abdul Munir Mulkhan, S.U. talked about a spirit of Muhammadiyah movement. “Muhammadiyah situates its programs as a national infrastructure foundation. The programs aim to enhance awareness of changes in fate and rights of health, intelligence, education, and immediate dialog with a scripture. Since the beginning of the 20^th century, Muhammadiyah has encourages people to live healthily and smartly as well as decide their own fate. The key is collaborating with various parties. What K.H. Sudja’ did was for exalting human dignity. Even though K.H. Sudja’ idea was considered non sense, he successfully initiated to establish the hospital and now Muhammadiyah possesses 105 hospitals,” declared Prof. Abdul Munir.
“K.H. Ahmad Dahlan was inspired by Surah Al-Maun to found Muhammadiyah. “According to Al-Maroghi, Al-Maun refers to all basic needs as food, drink, clothing, and shelters. As mentioned on Al-Maun, Allah commands us to develop socio-economic systems, anticipate inequality in production capabilities and business opportunity utilization. Through the systematic means, poverty can be alleviated,” ended Abdul Munir.